I walked to my hostel from the train station in Seville, which was a little bit longer than I thought, but allowed me to see a little bit more of the city than I ordinarily would have. After get checked into the hostel (the plaza outside it pictured above), I made straight away for the Catedral. Since it was holy week, I knew that a billion Europeans with awesome vacation policies would be here like they were in Madrid. Furthermore, as I would soon discover, Seville more than anywhere else in Spain is renowned for Holy Week festivities. I walked along Calle Cuna to the Catedral plaza and, after snapping some pictures of the exterior, hopped in line. The structure is completely amazing; after conquering Seville from the Moors in 1248, the Christians under Ferndinand III destroyed the mosque occupying the site and, within a century or two, began work on the Gothic cathedral we see today. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and the third biggest church overall (after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London). An amazing attribute is the part of the mosque that still remains, the Moorish tower built under the Almohad amir Al Yu'qub in the 1190s. However, after his death in 1199, the tower was never completed, until the Christian church encompassed it into the cathedral and made it the bell tower. Now, it boasts the biggest bells in all of Spain. The exterior of the building is an equally unique mix of Gothic and Moorish influences, and overall, the building was not as symmetrical and predictable as the majority of Gothic cathedrals. Inside, other than how massive it was, it was pretty typical, though. Not to use that as a negative statement, though; the artwork, sculpture, and overall architecture was all stunning. Plus the space that it occupies is just something in itself. There were also some cool and unique things inside like the grave of Christopher Columbus, or Cristobal Colon, as they call him. I did the full audio tour of the Cathedral and then climbed the Giralda tower (not nearly as daunting as the belltower in Florence because this one had ramps instead of stairs) and got some great pictures of the rest of the Cathedral and the neighboring Alcazar from the air.After the church, I walked right across the plaza to the Alcazar, or fortress. Pedro the Cruel built in the 1300s on top of an existing Moorish governor's complex. He built the massive spread (a 14th-century version of Versailles, I suppose) in the Moorish fashion, however, even though he was constantly battling them during the ongoing Reconquista. The whole place is just absolutely gorgeous; it's already a UNESCO World Heritage site, but I think it may be one of the most stunning and beautiful buildings in the world. The Moorish artwork, like the colorful floral and animal designs on wall tiles, arches, etc. is just a beautiful composition. There were subtle Christian influences (like the use of Bible scripture everywhere) but everything else was either Sevillan Moorish or Granadan Nasrid Moorish in style. I was just in awe of almost every room I went into, and the outdoors interior courtyards were simply breathtaking. My one frustration was that no one seemed to be able to take a decent picture of me. I was listening for French or Spanish speakers, or even Germans, that I could spew out a broken sentence asking for a photo. But all I was hearing were weird Slavic or Norse sounding languages! The people that I did hit up generally screwed it up, which was just infuriating. This Chinese girl that was using a $1000+ camera took two pictures of me that weren't even in focus!!! Are you kidding?? Then a French guy took a picture of me and just zoomed in on me and didn't include any of the incredible backdrop of the front of the Alcazar's palace. It just...rubbed my gears the wrong way the entire time. Traveling alone has its privileges, like being squeezed into somewhere when you didn't make a reservation, but having no one to take good pictures of you is a serious drawback. I'll have a lot of amazing photos of buildings, artwork, and scenery, but I'm not sure how many pictures that I like to call "Grandma-frameworthy" I'll come back with. Oh well.
By the time I got out of the Alcazar, it was already 5ish and not worth heading to the Casa Pilatos (another great Moorish art building), which closes at 6. Instead, I hung out near the Cathedral for what appeared to be a massive parade for Holy Wednesday. They were lining hundreds of wooden folden chairs up along the main avenue in front of the Cathedral and then in all the plazas the Cathedral opens out into. What I was in for, however, definitely exceeded all of this.
I had a few beers at a tapas bar near the Cathedral to stall time, and then headed down to the Cathedral itself to get a good place for the parade. Come 6 o'clock, literally thousands of clergymen and laypeople came out of the Cathedral in a slow, massive procession, all of them wearing the full robes and pointy hats that to us look like KKK attire. Except these guys were flinging incense, carrying flags, and their crosses weren't on fire. 
Each massive group of these priests would be accompanied by a full military band and a giant float for veneration. I'm not sure if there are relics of saints on these floats, or they're just used for allegories for veneration, but either way they were a huge deal. For instance, the first float that came out of the Cathedral was the scene of the flagellation. Two Roman soldiers were prostrating Jesus while also holding back the Marys and some of the disciples. The next float was a statue of the Virgin surrounded by hundreds of candles. The third one was Jesus on the Cross, surrounded by thousands of purple flowers. All the while in between them, thousands and thousands of people in the black, white, red, and brown robes and Klan-ish hats. All of their colors and insignia symbolized various orders, but I had no idea what they were, not being Catholic. 
The funny part was that, under these floats that were inching along, were like 20-30 men physically lifting it up off the road and carrying it. It was just like in the movie 300 where slaves propel Xerxes' platform. Every 30 meters or so, the float would be lowered, and a quick "changing of the guard" per se happened. All of these guys were wearing big padded turban-looking hats and then had weightlifting belts on. All of them seemed to be having a great time, so I guess its a pretty honorable thing to be a part of. However, all of these shifts made for pretty agonizingly slow progress. I felt kind of bad for the priests that were carrying replication crosses, even if constantly setting them down they couldn't have been comfortable.
After watching about 2 hours of this from the Cathedral, I decided to go back to my hostel for a shower and to put on warmer clothes before going out for tapas and a free flamenco club the hostel recommended. That is, that's what I thought I was going to do. Turns out that this parades of icon floats are not just done by the Cathedral. In fact, EVERY major church in town does them. The routes are constantly fluctuating, and over the course of the whole evening take up about every street in town. Seville, unlike Madrid, has very few main artery roads and the whole old town is just winding, unsensible alleys. Thus, if you put slow parades down these roads and not let pedestrians cross until the parade is complete, you have a major, major traffic problem. Attempting to walk the mile or so back to my hostel from the Cathedral turned out to be a 2 hour and 45 minute experience. Why? Because even though they started at 4 in the afternoon, these processions are STILL going on until 3 in the morning tonight. Since my hostel has a church for a neighbor, they clogged this neighborhood more than usual and I literally wasn't able to get home for that long. Every time that I went down a road, I would see the pointy hats and the crowd and knew I couldn't go that way; except I would turn around from whence I came, but I was no longer able to go that way either because a new parade would now be going on there. So literally, in what I before all this considered the most confusing city I've ever been to, I was just snaking in and out of unfamiliar roads with no idea what direction I was ultimately going in... all because the entire city apparently shuts down for Holy Week. I had no idea, whatsoever, what I was getting myself into. I just hope that, with tomorrow being Holy Thursday, that museums and places are still even open. Come to think of it, I have no idea if anything will even be open in Cordoba Friday and Saturday, and I don't even know if the trains will be running normally for me to go to Granada on Sunday! I have a Monday date with the Alhambra that I already have a ticket for, so I would certainly hope that I can get there without a problem.
So, overall, mixed feelings about my first day in Seville. I absolutely loved the Alcazar and thought the Cathedral was spectacular as well, but being on my feet for ten hours without a break - and being completely unable to get home when I wanted to - made for a very frustrating evening. The parades were certainly as culturally unique an experience as going to the bullfight, and it was certainly exciting and intriguing at the beginning. However, I am going to be hearing the trumpets and drums right outside the hostel doors for at least another two hours... but if this is a unique-to-Thursday deal I will be okay with it. If it occupies the whole of tomorrow too, however, I will want to get the hell out of Seville and on to Cordoba as soon as possible.
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